Why the early 90s and Tomac was awesome ...

[CCMDoc]

I have to say no matter how many times I watch all of those races from BITD, I thoroughly enjoy them. Very exciting even though the endings never change

 

[Bollox64]

I was at the 92 grundig round in plymouth and my greatest memory was seeing tomac hammering down the long hill at the back of the track heading toward a steel gate and just flicking the bike sideways and through the 90 degree gap at the bottom without even a foot off the pedals , i can still hear the rumble of that disc drive just awesome !

I won a magazine comp (MBUK or Mountain Biker), so myself and a mate got to stay with the Ritchey/Schwinn (+ Caroline Alexander) team for the '93 Plymouth WC race, hanging at the hotel, eating with them, helping prep bikes and even riding their bikes. On the training day, we rode the course with Tim Gould, Mike Kloser, World Champ Henrik Djernis and Henrik Frischnekt. We both virtually popped our lungs trying to keep up!

On the first big steep downhill we were passed by Tomac - going sideways!

On raceday we hung out in the team tent, and then went out on course with the team manager (Mike Burney?) and handed out water bottles and swapped muddy sun glasses for Tim Gould and Co.

At the end of the weekend we each got given Team Ritchey/Schwinn jerseys and shorts (still have the Ritchey jersey), and I also have Mike Klosers signed race number somewhere.

That weekend was so cool Must dig out all the old photos, programme etc

Wonder what they're all doing now?

 

[minor_LEGEND]

Tomac sure is a legend. I totally idolised him as a kid, anything he endorsed & I wanted & I tried to pull off his riding style ( I think we all did ).
As said, you only need watch or witness him point a bike through some technical terrain to see he had skills others didnt.
From the 1992 Scottish Grundig world cup race at Strathpeffer where the conditions were so awfull the riders nearly boycotted the race. Tomac was riding down sections no other rider could, or the steep drop away at Bassano del Grappa in 1993 where he was getting some serious air every lap in an XC race.

As has been mentioned above, the 1993 UK world cup round in Plymouth was a sensational day, I was there & seeing a goatee sporting Tomes' coming down the pipeline, sideways in a cloud of dust is something that I hope never leaves my memory.

 

[CCMDoc]

Thanks for sharing those awesome experiences.
Great times to be in mountain biking and mountain bike racing.

 

[unit3]

Cant view, says its private